page_title: First Congress on the French Language in Canada
section_title: Organization
hierarchical_section_title: First Congress on the French Language in Canada / Organization
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Carte postale du 1er Congrès de la langue française en Amérique. Siège du congrès: Université Laval, Québec. English: Postcard of the 1st Congress of the French Language in the Americas. Location of the Congress: Université Laval, Quebec City.
context_page_description: The First Congress on the French Language in Canada was held in Quebec City from June 24 to June 30, 1912. Its stated objective was to "examine the questions raised by the defence, the culture and the development of the French language and literature in Canada."
context_section_description: On February 14, 1911, the executive office of the Société du parler français au Canada (SPFC) resolved to organize and convoke a Congress on the French Language in Canada to be held in the course of 1912, in Quebec City, under the patronage of Université Laval. The SPFC set up an organizing committee composed of ten of its members, under the presidency of Mgr Paul-Eugène Roy, in order to set the date of the congress and see to the preparation of the event.
  Some two months later, on April 10, while the organizing was in progress, the committee sent a message "to all the French Canadians and to all the Acadians who have at heart the conservation of their language and their nationality" to invite them to take part to this first congress from Monday June 24 to Sunday June 30. While the Congress's name mentions the French language "in Canada", the organizers explicitly addressed their invitation to all the French speakers of America. Regional committees were formed by the general organizing committee to recruit members as much in Quebec as in Ontario, Western Canada, in the Atlantic provinces or the United States.
  The organizing committee, wanting to make the congress a milestone event, sought the participation of civil society and the representatives of political and religious powers. The Quebec government, headed by Liberal premier Lomer Gouin was very favourable to holding the Congress in the historical capital of Quebec. In addition to the rooms of the Université Laval, the congress members were granted access to the rooms of the provincial Parliament Building.
  The opening of the Congress on June 24 was intended to associate the event with a great day of patriotism and confer to it a solemn, popular and festive character. On June 23 and 24, just before the official opening of the Congress, its members were invited to participate to the "National Day of the French Canadians" which was organized by the Saint-Sauveur de Québec chapter of the Association Saint-Jean-Baptiste (ASJB) and other affiliated branches. As part of the programme were the traditional mass, procession, banquet, speeches, entertainment, etc.
  At 8:00 PM on June 24, the opening session of the Congress held in the Salle des exercices militaires on Grande Allée street was the occasion of great pomp with music and speeches from the principal officers of the Congress, the Lieutenant Governor François Langelier, members of the Catholic clergy, the former prime minister of Canada Wilfrid Laurier, the premier of Quebec Lomer Gouin, Charles-Eudes Bonin, of the general consulate of France in Quebec City, Étienne Lamy, delegate of the Académie française, the mayor of Quebec Napoléon Drouin, ministers from the provinces of Ontario and the Maritimes, etc.
  The room was decorated with the flags of Great Britain, Canada, Quebec, France, the United States, and also the Carillon Sacré-Cœur. The musicians played God Save the Queen, the national anthem of both Great Britain and the Dominion of Canada, Ô Canada, then the national anthem of French Canadians, as well as other patriotic or traditional airs such as Vive la Canadienne, À la claire fontaine, Ô Canada! mon pays, mes amours, etc.
caption: Post card in memory of the 1st Congress on the French Language in America
exif: {}